Gergiev Conducts Three 20th-Century Greats, BBC Four, 7.30pm
Next year, the London Symphony Orchestra, under its dynamic principal conductor Valery Gergiev, will be completing its epic exploration of the complete Mahler symphony cycle. Here, though, is the third and last of an intriguing concert series celebrating and counterpointing the music of Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Debussy, recorded at the Barbican in London during the summer. Stravinsky’s score for Petrushka and his Symphony in Three Movements, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 1 (with the young Russian soloist Vadim Repin) and three of Debussy’s preludes for piano make up tonight’s programme.
Kate: The New Diana? Sky One, 10pm
Following Kate Middleton’s hounding by paparazzi on her birthday this year, Sky One asks whether we as a nation are trying to turn Prince William’s girlfriend into Diana version 2.0. Well, if we are, it’s just possible that programmes called, say, Kate: The New Diana? may not exactly help matters. This documentary compares the way the two young women were thrust suddenly into the limelight, tackling the issue of press intrusion and asking how Middleton will cope if, as seems entirely plausible, she becomes ever more a fixture in royal circles.
Making the Monkees, More4, 11pm
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It was only pressure from fans, desperate to see them play live, that ever got tambourine-wielding Davy Jones and the gang out of the Burbank studios where The Monkees was filmed, and on to a real stage. By 1967, in the US, they were outselling Elvis and the Beatles combined. The story of arguably the world’s first manufactured boy band is told in this irresistible portrait by the director Brian Henry-Martin.